Which man do you expect to be more honest: the one wearing an Armani suit or the one wearing a sport coat from Men's House? Although clothes might seem irrelevant, research by Paul Piff, a social psychologist at Berkeley, suggests that indicators of socioeconomic status can predict trustworthiness. It turns out that increasing status and power go hand in hand with decreasing honesty and reliability. In one experiment, for example, Piff and colleagues asked participants to play the part of a job recruiter. The participants were told about an open temporary position that would last for no longer than six months, and about a well-qualified applicant who was interested only in a long-term role. When asked to prepare their pitches to woo this applicant, those recruiters with higher socioeconomic status not only neglected to tell the applicant that the job was temporary but also told the study's leaders that they would lie about the job's duration if asked.
From this and other findings, you might think that the rich are simply less trustworthy than the poor, but that's not exactly the case. A person's honesty depends on his or her relative feelings of power - or vulnerability - not on how much he or she has in the bank. Work by University of Cologne psychologist Joris Lammers proves the point. Lammers randomly assigned people to be a "boss" or a "follower" in an office simulation and found that most people temporarily elevated to more-senior roles displayed a higher degree of hypocritical behavior - they were quick to condemn others for unethical, self-interested behavior but judged their own similar actions to be acceptable.
When someone has a higher status than you, or even just thinks he does, his mind tells him that you need him more than he needs you. Consequently, he's more likely to satisfy short-term desires and worry less about the long-term consequences of being untrustworthy. So when deciding whom to trust, you have to consider power differences, including new and temporary ones. If a potential collaborator has just been promoted or has landed a big deal, he might regard some relationships as less important. And although top firms often have great reputations, that doesn't mean they treat their small clients as well as their larger ones.
~ David DeSteno
From this and other findings, you might think that the rich are simply less trustworthy than the poor, but that's not exactly the case. A person's honesty depends on his or her relative feelings of power - or vulnerability - not on how much he or she has in the bank. Work by University of Cologne psychologist Joris Lammers proves the point. Lammers randomly assigned people to be a "boss" or a "follower" in an office simulation and found that most people temporarily elevated to more-senior roles displayed a higher degree of hypocritical behavior - they were quick to condemn others for unethical, self-interested behavior but judged their own similar actions to be acceptable.
When someone has a higher status than you, or even just thinks he does, his mind tells him that you need him more than he needs you. Consequently, he's more likely to satisfy short-term desires and worry less about the long-term consequences of being untrustworthy. So when deciding whom to trust, you have to consider power differences, including new and temporary ones. If a potential collaborator has just been promoted or has landed a big deal, he might regard some relationships as less important. And although top firms often have great reputations, that doesn't mean they treat their small clients as well as their larger ones.
~ David DeSteno
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